đ Up next
Belgium
FP14d 18h
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says Ferrari should be expected to be a strong rival âfor the rest of the seasonâ after its performance at Silverstone. Toto Wolff said: "We need to look at ourselves. They said before the weekend that they were going to be lacking energy at this track. They haven't. They were a strong competitor, and this is to be expected now for the rest of the season."
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said the team stayed optimistic about Charles Leclercâs underlying performance because its data showed his pace was there, after Leclerc won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Vasseur said: "But in terms of performance, as I said in the press conference [on Friday at Silverstone], I was still optimistic with Charles, because we saw in the data that he was there. He was always there in the overlaps, and it's paying off today."
Carlos Sainz says Williams have âserious issues with developing this carâ after being left underwhelmed by the FW48 update introduced at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Sainz said: "Concerning and frustrating, because it starts to be a bad trend this year that we don't seem to really find a lot of lap time when the upgrades are coming. When I wake up and I go to the factory in the morning, I will be smiling again and trying to put my energy to try and improve the situation and try and help the team to find the problems that we're having, because it's clear to me now that we're having serious issues with developing this car, and we are not bringing the performance that we thought we were."
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said Isack Hadjar is making a âstep forwardâ every time he gets in the car. Mekies said: "Honestly, he has been strong since the beginning of the season... he's learning a lot from Max, he's learning a bit more every time he drives the car. And today was no different... certainly the big picture for us is that it's a step forward every time he goes out with the car, and that's positive for the rest of the season."
McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur and Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen have backed F1 Management and the FIA as they deal with ongoing 2026 calendar uncertainty after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were postponed indefinitely and removed, cutting the season to 22 races. FOM CEO Stefano Domenicali has suggested Bahrain could be reinstated between Azerbaijan and Singapore, but no update has been published, while Qatar and Abu Dhabi also remain at risk. Brown said: âStefano [Domenicali] and the FIA are going to work through the calendar, so we'll race what they tell us we're racing.â Vasseur added: âWe have huge trust in the FIA and FOM on the calendar.â
Ross Brawn made a rare return to the Formula 1 paddock at last weekendâs British Grand Prix, after recently taking up a new motorsport role in MotoGP. PlanetF1.com reports a photograph from Silverstone showed the former Ferrari, Mercedes and F1 boss on the grid with his wife Jean ahead of the Sprint, in what is thought to be his first grand prix appearance for some time. Brawn joined Pramac Racingâs board in May and has been acting as a strategic adviser to team principal Paolo Campinoti.
Jolyon Palmer said George Russell would be a âno-brainerâ option for Red Bull if Max Verstappen were to leave the team and take a seat at Mercedes. Palmer said: "And then the other one is George. If Max did go to Mercedes, George to Red Bull, I think, would be a complete no-brainer for him because it would be another great opportunity."
Lewis Hamilton said he missed a yellow flag at the British Grand Prix because he was watching his mirrors for a possible Max Verstappen counter-attack, after the Ferrari driver was given a post-race reprimand. Hamilton said: "I literally just got past Max. So, I'd come through Turn 9 and I was literally staring in the mirror because I was thinking he's going to come in a bit like George coming back past me, and that's where I was looking, and I didn't see the flag. So that's why later on, if you hear the radio, I asked if there was a yellow flag, because I didn't see one. That was it."
Toto Wolff says George Russell needs to âmake your own luckâ after finishing second at the British Grand Prix. Wolff said: "You need to make your own luck. [At Silverstone], he just held on to a car that he didn't feel was good, and at the end, Max had the accident. Lewis wanted to go for the win and pitted, and hopefully he has a bit of positive momentum."
Aston Martin team principal and technical director Adrian Newey says the team may have been guilty of not spending enough time with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll during the development of its 2026 car. Newey said: "Whilst it might not seem like it, we are very much listening to their comments and trying to act upon it. If people don't feel as if they're being heard then they of course get very frustrated; it's human reactions. So perhaps we've been guilty of not spending enough time with Fernando and Lance... kind of going through exactly what we are trying to achieve with the upgrade package."
Audi boss Mattia Binotto says the manufacturer has set itself a target of building a Formula 1 team capable of fighting for the world championship by 2030. Binotto said: "We've actually set ourselves a goal that extends well beyond 2026 and 2027. Our target is 2030: we want to build a team capable of competing for the world championship. That's why I see 2026 and 2027 primarily as years of construction, rather than years judged solely on racing results. Often, people only look at the team on the track, but that's the visible part of the project. The track is the icing on the cake. But first, we have to build the cake."
Red Bull says it is still in discussions with the FIA over the ADUO finding that labelled it the 2026 engine benchmark, which would leave it without a homologation upgrade opportunity under the system. Asked by PlanetF1 after the British Grand Prix, team principal Laurent Mekies said Red Bull is âstill exchanging data with the FIAâ and that the sides have compared âmethodologies and potential discrepanciesâ, with another sit-down planned next week âto look at the same set of data together.â
Mercedes senior race engineer Marcus Dudley said trust and finely tuned communication with George Russell are central to finding performance, speaking on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show after the British Grand Prix. Dudley said: "It's just building trust and confidence in each other. We spend a lot of time talking to each other. But it's trying to find performance in George, but also performance in ourselves. And the key part of our job is the communication between the two of us."
Lewis Hamilton says Formula 1 should rely less on software, after describing how energy management and technical issues can cost drivers time even when they are pushing the car to the limit. Hamilton said: "Like yesterday, I was losing three-tenths of a second just because the software wasn't doing its job. I didn't know until I came back to my engineers. I was like, 'I'm sorry, I'm slow,' and they're like, 'You're not slow, the software wasn't working.' So that's a real frustration because back in the day, they didn't have that. We need less."
Charles Leclerc said âintuition mixed with feelingâ helped him pinpoint set-up changes after a difficult sprint at Silverstone, which he felt better suited his driving style and helped turn the weekend around on his way to victory. Leclerc said: "It's just a few things that I saw in the data on Friday night, and I was like, 'Okay, those might be things that just don't fit with my driving style'. And we changed those few things from sprint race to qualifying, and that was a lot better. You just don't look at data and say, 'My God, okay, this is what we need to change.' It's intuition mixed with feeling."
Drivers are already expecting another deployment headache at Spa-Francorchamps, with Fernando Alonso warning the battery could run out for large parts of the lap and leave cars with âless power than F2â. He said Spa, like Silverstone, is âvery thirsty on energyâ because there are too few heavy braking zones to recharge, adding: âIf you deploy in Spa from Turn 1 to 5, it is finito for the rest of the lap.â Max Verstappen and Oliver Bearman also anticipated âpainfulâ energy management at Spa.
Williams team principal James Vowles says the teamâs current rate of adding performance to its car is not fast enough, as Williams begins a two-week review of its upgrade programme after the British Grand Prix. Vowles said: "I would say right now what's clear is our rate of bringing performance to the car â which is a little bit nuanced in how I mean that â is not at the rate required in order for us to move forward."
Toto Wolff says Mercedes need to âlook at ourselvesâ rather than focus on Ferrari after Charles Leclercâs British Grand Prix win at Silverstone. Toto Wolff said: "We need to look at ourselves. They [Ferrari] said before the weekend that they're going to be lacking energy over this trackâthey haven't. They were a strong competitor, and this is to be expected now for the rest of the season."
Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack says the cost cap means the team has to balance its planned upgrade push with the financial risk of crashes, as it prepares to bring a much-awaited package to the Hungarian Grand Prix. Krack said: "You go to the supermarket, and you have 100 euros in your pocket, so you can only spend 100 euros. If you have spent your 100, you cannot spend any more, so you need to see when you have everything. One thing you must not forget is you can have crashes, so you need to keep some margin to spend your 100 euros cleverly, so it is a consistent balance between development and cost of racing."
Zak Brown said it was "awesome" to see McLarenâs MCL-HY World Endurance Championship hypercar make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with Lando Norris driving. Brown said: "Awesome to see the McLaren MCL-HY make its public debut ahead of our WEC entry in 2027. What better way to introduce our challenger to the world than a run up the hill at Goodwood with the reigning F1 world champion behind the wheel!"
BYD has played down the prospect of a Formula 1 team entry, insisting it would only get involved if it can contribute technology rather than simply sponsor a car. Speaking to PlanetF1.com in Monaco, vice-president Stella Li said BYD is looking at whether its technology âcan help FIA, can help all other teamsâ and added: âNo, no, there is no project⌠we did not have a concrete agenda.â BYD adviser Alfredo Altavilla, quoted by SoyMotor.com, said: âWe will never participate in Formula 1 just to put a sticker on the side of a car.â
Get the full feed, faster alerts, and the stories worth following on your phone.
